Shipbuilding

Here are the first released images of the new aircraft carrier GERALD R FORD (CVN 78) “underway” for the first time, being moved Nov. 17 from the graving dock in which she was built to Pier 3 at Newport News Shipbuilding. This is the first time the true size and shape of the carrier can…

The new amphibious assault ship AMERICA (LHA 6) took to the sea for the first time Nov. 5, carrying out five days of builder’s sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico. Built by Huntington Ingalls Industries at their Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., the AMERICA was put through more than 200 test events. Engineers checked…

On Saturday, Nov. 9, Susan Ford Bales christened the new aircraft carrier after her father, the 38th president of the United States. Hours later, shipbuilders Huntington Ingalls Industries released a timelapse video of the ship’s construction, beginning with its keel laying ceremony in 2009. Stick with it past the opening tribute to the man who…

A rare look at three carriers at Newport News Shipbuilding It’s not every decade that a new aircraft carrier design comes along. But now, for the first time since the early 1970s, the first of a new class of nuclear-powered behemoths is being revealed to the public along the shores of the James River in…

The Japanese submarine KOKURYU was launched Oct. 31 at Kawasaki Industries in Kobe. See below for more. A look at some developments around the world in new naval projects. An occasional feature of Intercepts AUSTRALIA The tower superstructure of the new Air Warfare Destroyer HMAS HOBART (39) was lifted into position on Sept. 29 at…

With little ceremony, Bath Iron Works launched the ZUMWALT (DDG 1000) into Maine’s Kennebec River on Monday afternoon, Oct. 28. The 600-foot-long ship — the largest destroyer ever built — was floated off from a floating drydock that had been moved into the middle of the river. The operation to move the drydock out into…

The destroyer Zumwalt is one of the most strikingly different warships ever built, in any age. Angular and stealthy, the ship’s lines are almost as different from other destroyers as the Monitor and Virginia/Merrimac were from the sailing ships of their era. In some ways, the Zumwalt’s silhouette actually harkens back to Confederate-built Civil War-era…

The Royal Navy on Wednesday tweeted this time-lapse video of the HMS Dragon (D35) transiting the Suez Canal. The video of the Type 45 destroyer was shot on Sept. 10 as the Dragon headed north through the Suez from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.

Government shutdown or not, the US Navy’s shipbuilding programs are moving forward, with several noteworthy events recently taking place or coming up. At the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Conn., the NORTH DAKOTA (SSN 784), latest of the Virginia class of nuclear-powered attack submarines, was floated off Sept. 15 in a process that…

Man your submarines! Ready, Set, Race! It’s summertime, and what better way to beat the heat than to take a dip in the pool. Especially if the pool is more than 3,000 feet long. And especially if you can put on a wet suit, don SCUBA gear, strap yourself into a human-powered undersea vehicle and…